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Jul 28, 2024

Real Purity

Passage: Mark 7:1-23

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Gospel of Mark

Keywords: judgment, heart, purity, hypocrisy, tradition

Summary:

None of us like being criticized. Jesus was no stranger to criticism. In this passage he not only uses criticism as a teaching opportunity. He also gives us real clarity about why purity of heart matter, how tradition can be counter-productive to that and what we need to do to cultivate heart-purity that builds all the most important relationships in life.

Detail:

True Purity

Mark 7:1-23

July 28, 2024

Fellowship Question:  What is one of your favorite or least favorite church traditions…and why?

INTRO:  Anyone here really enjoy being criticized?  Didn’t think so.  Even on those occasions when criticism may be justified and actually be helpful to our growth, why is it so hard to take?  What does criticism say about us or to us that is hard?

  • We did/are doing something wrong.
  • We lack knowledge, understanding or wisdom.
  • We’re incomplete.
  • We’re inferior/less mature/less wise, less spiritual, etc. than the person giving the criticism.
  • ???

On the one hand, criticism is just part of living in community.  A ‘community,’ be it a family or a church or a nation, has to monitor the behavior of its members.  That demands some critical judgment from time to time. On the other hand, criticism that is off the mark or unnecessary is sign of a problem with the critic, not the criticized.  It can often be a sign of pride or arrogance, of judgmentalism or a desire to control someone else. 

            Jesus was no stranger to criticism, perfect though he was (and is).  I’m quite sure God is probably the most criticized being in the universe.  So, it wasn’t a new experience for Jesus, being God in human flesh, to be criticized.  Unlike me, he’s doesn’t get defensive when criticized.  But he does go truthful.

            Criticism was the cause for the focus of today’s passage of Scripture in Mark 7.  Some critics (Pharisees and teachers of the law) had walked some 80 miles and 4 days from Jerusalem to Galilee to let Jesus know what he and his disciples were doing wrong.  They probably didn’t come with this particular issue in mind.  But finding the disciples doing, or better yet not doing, what they were certain needed to be done, was enough of a pretext for which to level a very spiritually-sounding criticism. 

Mark 7:1-5

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

            Did any of us have mothers or dads who required that we “wash up” for lunch or dinner?  Why did they require that? 

  • Hygiene
  • Social skill training
  • ???

That was NOT the reasoning of the Pharisees.  Immunology and biology had not progressed to the point where they understood the reasons for washing hands before eating. So where did they get this idea that they needed to wash hands before eating food? 

Vss. 3-4 tell us that hand-washing for Jews was…

  • a ceremonial-thing, and
  • a tradition-thing.

A.) Ceremonial washing was commanded in the O.T. for a host of things that rendered a person ritually or ceremonially “unclean” until certain washing was done and certain time had passed (from sunset to several days of waiting).  If you came into contact with a dead animal or human, you had to wash and wait.  If you had certain diseases or bodily functions, you had to wash and wait to get to a place where you could relate normally to others and to God. 

B.) Tradition-oriented hand-washing referred to in this passage took ceremonial washing even further.  Only the priests and Levites were specifically given commands about washing their hands in the O.T.  Fast-forward hundreds of years to Jesus’ day and you have a body of interpretation of the O.T. law called the Talmud that called on everyone to wash hands a certain way before eating.  In essence, the breadth of the command had been expanded (to everyone as opposed to just those handling the sacrifices in the Temple) as had the frequency and occasions (all food-handling). 

So, in essence, there was NO command that the disciples or Jesus were breaking, merely long and deeply-held traditions. 

Q:  Just what are traditions?

We have “holiday traditions”, things we do on certain holidays because they supposedly connect us to meaningful events in the past and serve a meaningful purpose in the present. 

  • Thanksgiving: turkey, cranberry sauce, big meal.  Why?  To remind us of what our forefathers, the Pilgrims and 1st-Nation peoples did to celebrate God’s provision and their gratitude.  But our menu has migrated significantly.  Mashed potatoes or yams?    Cranberries?  Probably not (since the Native Americans apparently just used them for dies and the Pilgrims were out of sugar). Pumpkin pies?  Probably not since that required butter, sugar, etc.  They did do a pumpkin custard that was cooked inside pumpkins placed in the coals of the fire.  What’s missing?  Seafood—lobster, eels, fish, corn porridge, venison and lots of vegetables. 
  • Purpose? To be THANKFUL to God.  If that is missing from Thanksgiving, the tradition has become completely vain and empty.

We also have religious traditions: 

  • Worship traditions: singing, reading scripture, preaching of the Word, greeting time, celebration of Communion a certain way, “coming to church”/buildings, taking offerings, dress/vestments, liturgy/non-traditional or spontaneous praying, etc..
  • Fellowship traditions: pot-lucks, small groups, camps
  • Theological traditions: creeds, theologies, doctrinal statements, etc.
  • Church Calendar: Lent, Advent, how we celebrate or don’t celebrate Holy Days, date of Christmas, Easter, etc. 

Traditions are, according to Webster, “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior.” 

            Traditions are observable things that tie us together with history or culture or events.  They are not necessarily good or evil.  They can be good or evil depending upon what they are or how they are performed.  (Satanic rituals are, by nature, evil—orgies, human sacrifice, bodily mutilation.  Biblical rituals are by nature good…but can become evil if wrongly applied, observed or voided of meaning.  EX:  Taking biblical celebrations like Passover or Feast of Tabernacles and infusing them with pagan rituals or divorcing them from their intended spiritual effects.

What are some good reasons for religious/spiritual traditions?

  • Help us obey God’s commands: Mark 7:8-9
  • Connect us with God.
  • Connect us with each other.
  • Develop spiritual health.
  • Protect us from evil/sin.
  • Connect us with important history.

Q:  When it comes to the Jew’s tradition of hand washing, what might have been the good reasons for why those traditions were instituted?

  • Remind one of the need for life-cleaning, sin removal,
  • Make dining with others more enjoyable?

Q:  What could be some of the negative effects that religious/ spiritual traditions create?              

  • Pride
  • Rigidity
  • Judgmentalism
  • False sense of rightness/holiness/purity.
  • Power over and control of others
  • Self-righteousness

The O.T. had plenty to say about the consumption of food, forbidden foods and the correct way to prepare food.  But the experts in the Jewish law for some reason felt the need to expand what was already a pretty specific and expansive law into an even more specific and expansive code of conduct. 

APP:   If we’re honest, I think we can all actually see that tendency in our own lives.  We tend to take the good, simple commands of God and embellish or add to them.

EX:

  • Romans 12:2—“Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….” So, in the name of not being “conformed” to the world, some churches will say, “Well, that means don’t drink these kinds of drinks or go to these kinds of establishments, don’t watch this list of shows, stay away from these kinds of events, don’t listen to this kind of music, don’t hang out with these sorts of people, etc.”  But while doing some of those things might help a person who is really passionate about developing the mind and heart of Christ in their daily thoughts, for the person who is doing it to look respectable to others…or cover over other sins of the heart and mind that aren’t so public…or control their children in hopes they will never go off the rails, those things may have very little effect on their way of thinking or heart-attitudes towards money or purity or marriage or love.
  • Hebrews 10:25—“Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together….” So we may feel obligated to go to church every Sunday or every time the doors are open.  But just coming to a building may not move us to the heart of God for WHY we’re to come together--to pay attention to what God may be wanting to say to us when we are there…or how He might want us to encourage one another during the few minutes we’re there…or who he might want us to have compassion towards as we walk the streets that bring us here. 

EX:  Let’s just look at our worship service and ask, “What of this has God commanded and what could easily become merely our ‘tradition’ or repetitive practice?”

  • When and day we meet? What’s the command behind this?  Hebrews 10:25.  Beyond that?   Why?
  • Coffee time? (Command?) Why?
  • Opening with musical worship? Why?  (Eph. 5:19—“Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and sp. songs.  Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord.”
  • Style of our songs? (Hymns and contemporary Chr. vs. Gregorian chants or Chr. rap.)  Why?
  • Musical instruments we use? (Keyboard, guitars, drums instead of no instruments or organ or…bagpipes!) Why?
  • Fellowship question? Why?  (4 times the N.T. commands us to “Greet o/a with a holy kiss.”—Romans 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Peter 5:14).
  • Announcements? Why?
  • Ministry focus? Why?
  • Popcorn praying? Why?
  • Single preacher talking for 35-40 minutes? Why?  (1 Tim. 4:13—preaching and teaching of the Word)
  • How & how often we celebrate Communion? Why?
  • Prayer counselors? Why?
  • Length of service? Why?
  • Children’s church? Why?
  • Reading of Scriptures? (1 Tim. 4:13—public reading)

Why DON’T we do certain things like…

  • Confess our sins to each other every service? (James 5:16)
  • Have a time of sharing testimonies each week?
  • Invite people to share prophecies? (1 Cor. 12 & 14)

Jesus seeks to emphasize two things in this passage when it comes to practicing REAL PURITY: 

  1. Our traditions must never interfere with God’s commands. We’ve already taken a look at this in regard to some of our church traditions.  But there is so much more that this touches on. 

Jesus chose the 5th commandment: “Honor your father and mother,” as an example of how tradition had overtaken commands.  Mark 7:9-13

And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 

10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

“Corban” is simply the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for “gift.”  Apparently the religious leaders had developed a little carve-out system that said you could dedicate something to God and thus free yourself from the family responsibility for using those resources to take care of your parents in their elder years.  ILL:  It was a bit like a church that tells its people that giving 10% of your income to the church should take precedence over taking care of true and basic needs of your family, particularly your parents.  OR that you should volunteer your time to church ministries even if it robs needed time from loving your spouse/children or caring for your parents when they need it. 

This is why it is always appropriate to ask what the biblical root command(s) is/are for any activity I’m engaged in that impacts those around me.  Am I putting my tradition or preferred practice above God’s Word and command? 

ILL:  The scene from the movie Jesus Revolution—Pastor Chuck Smith is getting criticism from his church board for letting all these barefoot hippy-type young people into the church.  They were soiling the carpets!  That had to stop. But the next scene has Pastor Chuck washing the feet of all these kids as they came to church.  He was not about to let the tradition of shoes in church get in the way of the command to “make disciples of all nations”…or to “love my neighbor as myself”…or to not show favoritism based on what someone is wearing, (James 2:3).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02wMEjHVdgE

Let’s spend the rest of our time today looking at the issue of purity that both the Pharisees and Jesus seemed to be so concerned with, though from different perspectives.

Mark 7:14-23

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16]  [Not in most early manuscripts; probably a scribal insertion from Mark 4:23.]

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. 

“Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

  1. Spiritual purity is first and foremost internal, not external…of the heart, not the hands.

Our attention should be on our hearts far more than our actions, on what’s going on in our heads and souls more than what people can see on the outside with our appearance and behaviors. 

            Jesus puts the blame for bad behavior squarely on our souls, not our environment.  We engage in “evil”, more often than not, not because someone forces it upon us from the outside but because our hearts are drawn into by our own sinful desires and longings. 

James 1:14-15—“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

            Let’s ask the question, “WHY should PURITY matter to us as children of God?” 

  • God: Moral/spiritual/intellectual purity is the nature of G  The notion of “holiness”, the chief characteristic of God, requires purity of desire, heart, thoughts, will, etc.  Without holiness, no one will see/experience God (Heb. 12:14).  Purity will either destroy sin or sin will destroy purity.  Purity enables us to experience/know God.
  • Self: Purity frees us from the negative effects and consequences of sin (c.f. James 1:13-15; Romans 6:23—“death”).  Impurity of life is like eating rotten food or handling poison before eating and not washing your hands.  Impurity is self-defeating, self-poisoning. 
  • Others: Purity enables us to experience others as God has designed us to.  Just take a look at the list of actions that evil thoughts/desires result in: “sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly.”  Do any of these actions produce better human relationships than purity?  NO! I’ve never seen a single relationship with a single person improved by envy, slander, arrogance, sexual immorality, theft and, yes, murder. 

Purity of heart/mind benefits every relationship in life:  God, ourselves and others. 

My last question is, “HOW do we get and maintain genuine, from-the-heart purity?”  That could be a message in itself.  But for now, let’s just focus on what Jesus focuses on.

            First, know that when the N.T. talks about the “heart”, that focuses not so much upon the emotions as we tend to think of the figurative use of the word “heart” but upon the thoughts—the 1st century use of the term “heart.”  It doesn’t exclude emotions.  But it isn’t primarily driven by emotions, rather by our thought processes.  Therefore, I’m going to suggest that the first step in getting and maintaining genuine purity is…

  • Repentance: agreeing with God about what sin is and where it is present in my life. 
    1. CALL to FAITH in JESUS. I cannot save myself by anything I do to try and earn God’s favor.  Only Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and my submission to that can make me right with God.
    2. Turning from my natural tendency to hypocrisy—measuring my purity by outward things rather than inward relationship with God. (Vs. 6).  We need heart-checks far more than we need behavior-management.  We need to wash our thoughts and desire far more than we need to wash our hands.  APP:  try using your habit of hand-washing to remind you to heart-wash throughout the day.
  • Heart-washing: through “the washing of water by the Word,” ( 5:26).  Jesus told his disciples, “Now you are clean through/by means of the word I have spoken to you,” (Jn. 15:3).  Just like most of us need water to get clean hands or bodies, so we need frequent washing of ‘the water of the Word’ to get clean thoughts, motives and desires.  Is it any wonder that God compares his word to the cleansing power of water.  Just as water is absolutely essential to physical hygiene, so the Word is essential for spiritual hygiene.  If we want more purity, we must have more of the Word in our day, our speech, our thoughts, and our musings.  Whatever produces that in your life, DO IT!  Bible studies?  Memorization?  Daily devotionals?  Daily reading of the Word?  As often as we encounter water, we should be reminding ourselves to encounter the word of God.  Most of us need to cultivate a deeper love of God’s word than we have, say, for hearing ourselves talk…or reading the words of people on the internet…or filling our commute with music or talk-radio. 
  • Growing humility: Paying more attention to the condition of our hearts than the presentation of our conduct. Jesus quoted Isaiah 29:13 when he criticized the Pharisee’s concern with the external. 

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’

Heart-checks are far more valuable than hand-washings. 

The hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” says it well in the 3rd verse:

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.

Admitting that our hearts wander is honesty, not hypocrisy.  Praying, asking God to “bind our hearts to Him” is humility rather than arrogance that thinks we can somehow achieve that.  Asking God to reveal where and when our heart towards him is not matching our visible worship is what the Holy Spirit will use to create purity of heart rather than presumption of worship. 

This is why we take time for Communion every week.  It’s a time to come near to God in simple, unfeigned and unfiltered worship from the heart. 

COMMUNION